Michele Payne: Abstract Expressionist Art and Pattern Design

Michele Payne is a professional artist and surface designer living and working in Worthing, West Sussex, on the South Coast of the UK. With a career spanning over three decades, she has cultivated a practice that bridges the worlds of commercial textile design and contemporary fine art. Having graduated from Brighton University in 1994, Michele Payne spent many years as a surface designer and illustrator, specializing in patterns and placement designs for the baby and children’s market. Her impressive list of past collaborators includes major brands such as John Lewis, Mothercare, and Pigeon Organics. In recent years, Michele Payne has focused on her personal art practice, primarily exploring abstract expressionism. Her paintings are characterized by an intuitive, emotion-led process where she utilizes a vibrant color palette to navigate themes of connection, belonging, and memory. Working from her garden studio, she draws inspiration from her surroundings and the coastal environment to create fragmented, imagined landscapes and symbolic compositions. Her work, including the acclaimed 'Glimmer' collection, emphasizes the interplay between color, light, and mark-making, inviting viewers to form their own emotional responses to her visual storytelling. Michele Payne continues to evolve her style, combining the technical precision of her design background with the expressive freedom of contemporary painting to produce a diverse and impactful body of work.